Climbing onto the largest vessel the world has ever seen brings you into a realm where everything is on a bewilderingly vast scale and ambition knows no bounds.

Prelude is a staggering 488m long and the best way to grasp what this means is by comparison with something more familiar.

Four football pitches placed end-to-end would not quite match this vessel’s length – and if you could lay the 301m of the Eiffel Tower alongside it, or the 443m of the Empire State

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30394137

The ruble is dying, and fast. In what is now being dubbed ‘Black Monday’ the ruble’s value to the dollar dropped nearly 15 percent. Tuesday brought no respite and the ruble fell another 10 percent. The ruble’s collapse follows a similar – though by no means as extreme – slump in oil prices. Still, the Russian economy’s troubles are deeper than that and President Vladimir Putin will be hard-pressed to find an easy out. With a recession looming, state energy companies are struggling to stay afloat, if not directly contributing to the country’s woes.

On the year, the ruble has lost more than 55 percent of its value against the dollar, breaking psychological barrier after psychological barrier. Tuesday’s low of 80 marks a new record and harkens back to the period of hyperinflation that characterized post-Soviet Russia. Then, as now, citizens are seeing their material wealth disintegrate amid rising costs domestically.

http://oilprice.com/Finance/the-Economy/More-To-Rubles-Collapse-Than-Meets-The-Eye.html

The U.S. will embark on the most massive overhaul of its relations with Cuba in more than 50 years, according to senior administration officials.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuba’s Raul Castro spoke separately at noon ET about relations between the two countries, which have had a strained relationship for decades. The U.S. first imposed an embargo on Cuba in 1960 and cut diplomatic ties the following year.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102276724

For as many years as I can remember and 2014 has been no exception, the most vocal mantra that can often be heard is one of warnings of an always imminent U.S. Dollar collapse as a consequence of a myriad of highly convincing arguments such as a soaring debt mountain, deficit, rampant money printing, demographics, rise of China, death of the petro-dollar etc.. However the dollar trend of recent years shows that the dollar in actual fact is little changed, where even the recent breakout only put the USD barely 4% outside of its multi-year trading trading range of between 85 to 79 and still within its longer-term trading range of 89 to 75.

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article48642.html

LAS VEGAS — ON the first day of the fall semester, I left campus from an afternoon of teaching anxious college freshmen and headed to my second job, serving at a chain restaurant off Las Vegas Boulevard. The switch from my professional attire to a white dress shirt, black apron and tie reflected the separation I attempt to maintain between my two jobs. Naturally, sitting at the first table in my section was one of my new students, dining with her parents.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/opinion/your-waitress-your-professor.html?_r=0

Doctors Will Get Less Money for Treating Medicaid Patients Starting in January

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-12-18/more-medicaid-patients-less-money-for-doctors

NY Governor Bans Fracking In His State (Evan K.)

The state of New York will ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, because of the potential it holds for creating a public health risk and its questionable economic benefits. Gov. Andrew Cuomo essentially had removed himself from the decision-making process, saying he would rely solely on aides with expertise on the issue, including Environmental Commissioner Joe Martens and Acting Health Commissioner Howard Zucker. “I don’t think I even have a role here,” Cuomo said at a news conference. At an open cabinet meeting in Albany, the state’s capital, Zucker said he based his decision to ban frackin on a single question: “Would I let my child play in a school field nearby or my family drink the water from the tap or grow their vegetables in the soil? After looking at the plethora of reports as you see behind me and the others that I have in my office, my answer is no.”

New York’s Fracking Ban Is About Politics, Not Science. And That’s Just Fine. (jdargis)

Cuomo has promised all along to base his fracking decisions on scientific evidence. But, as is often the case with controversial new technologies, the scientific evidence points in both directions. We know there are risks, benefits, and uncertainties. We just can’t agree on how to weigh them. That’s why, as Adam Briggle argued convincingly in Future Tense last year, the fracking debate cannot be settled by science alone. It can only be settled by appeals to values, priorities, and interests—which is to say, politics.

http://www.peakprosperity.com/dailydigest/90035/daily-digest-1219-fracking-banned-ny-state-life-could-lurk-deep-beneath-earth?utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter_158&utm_source=newsletter_2014-12-19&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_content=node_title_90035